Groom Rescues Struggling Swimmer Moments After Tying The Knot

posted by Bill Galluccio -

Aug 9, 2018

A groom who had just tied the knot with his bride did not hesitate to jump into the water to save a drowning swimmer at Orange Beach in Alabama. Zac Edwards was taking photos on the beach with his new wife Cindy when he heard somebody screaming for help.

Edwards, who is in the Coast Guard, knew he had to do something when he realized that authorities were busy helping another person who needed to be rescued from the rough surf. He ripped off his tuxedo shirt and started to take off his dress pants, but his wife told him to hurry up.

"And he goes to start taking his shirt off and he went off to take off his bottoms and I was like 'you don't have time' the guy kept drifting further and further out and he was struggling," she said.

As he made his way toward the man, another beachgoer swam out to him with a boogie board he could use as a floatation device. When Edwards got near the victim, he tried to get him on top of the board.

“He kept saying, ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,’” Edwards told thePensacola News Journal. “My goal was to keep his head out of the water.”

Edwards tried to drag the man to safety, but it was not easy due to the strong currents. Edwards was met in the water by a lifeguard in a watercraft and the two managed to drag the swimmer to shore.

"It beat us up pretty hard getting in and we pulled up on the beach everybody grabs him. I got up and she's running out in her wedding dress. I'm bleeding from the nose and trying to tell her get away because I know how important that dress was and I didn't want to ruin that," he explained to Fox10.